Whether you own and run a small business or hold a senior position within a large corporate, the pressures to think ‘outside the box’ and be creative are increasing. Career success may depend on it.
Small enterprises form the bedrock of job recovery but with funds not always easy to find it can be vitally important to collaborate with others, as opposed to trying to extend your products and services by developing everything yourselves. Outsourcing possible shared services is sensible from a cost perspective. But business leaders or founders must adapt their style from the pioneering stage, learn to control their ‘ego’, and to accept that other people and businesses have good ideas as well. If ideas are shared, and joint ventures created, it can be a very successful formula. So learning about your own skills and managing and interfacing with others is key.
Meanwhile large enterprises are continuing to shed thousands of jobs which are simply transactional. So information and knowledge creatively applied will help any executive hold on to a top role, providing that creativity is communicated well. Here learning to manage up and across is vital, as so often internal politics and KPI’s mitigate against speaking out against complacency and poor standards. You need to have courage and strength of character to change your style which often involves reviewing your own behaviours and preferred styles.